Wrexham win at Northampton to maintain promotion hopes

Wrexham continued their push for a third successive promotion with a straightforward 2-0 victory over Northampton in Sky Bet League One.

The result was never in doubt from the moment Sam Smith and Ollie Rathbone scored in the space of three first-half minutes on a comfortable afternoon for the Welsh side at Sixfields.

After an even and largely uneventful start, Wrexham took control with two quickfire goals.

A long ball from goalkeeper Mark Howard in the 19th minute was allowed to bounce and Smith ran beyond the home defence before slotting past Nik Tzanev to open the scoring.

The visitors quickly made it two as Northampton again failed to deal with a straight ball and Max Dyche’s misdirected clearing header eventually broke to Rathbone, who finished via the far post.

Rathbone poked wide at a corner as the visitors threatened to run riot and it was more of the same after half-time with Tzanev saving from Jay Rodriguez.

At no point did Northampton threaten a comeback and Wrexham coasted through the second half to make it back-to-back away wins.